Divine Office

I. THE EXPRESSION "DIVINE OFFICE"

This expression signifies etymologically a duty accomplished for
God; in virtue of a Divine precept it means, in ecclesiastical
language, certain prayers to be recited at fixed hours of the day
or night by priests, religious, or clerics, and, in general, by
all those obliged by their vocation to fulfil this duty. The
Divine Office comprises only the recitation of certain prayers in
the Breviary, and does not include the Mass and other liturgical
ceremonies. "Canonical Hours", "Breviary", "Diurnal and Nocturnal
Office", "Ecclesiastical Office", "Cursus ecclesiasticus", or
simply "cursus" are synonyms of "Divine Office". "Cursus" is the
form used by Gregory writing: "exsurgente abbate cum monachis ad
celebrandum cursum" (De glor. martyr., xv). "Agenda", "agenda
mortuorum", "agenda missarum", "solemnitas", "missa" were also
used. The Greeks employ "synaxis" and "canon" in this sense. The
expression "officium divinum" is used in the same sense by the
Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (800), the IV Lateran (1215), and
Vienne (1311); but it is also used to signify any office of the
Church. Thus Walafrid Strabo, Pseudo-Alcuin, Rupert de Tuy entitle
their works on liturgical ceremonies "De officiis divinis".
Hittorp, in the sixteenth century, entitled his collection of
medieval liturgical works "De Catholic� Ecclesi� divinis officiis
ac ministeriis" (Cologne, 1568). The usage in France of the
expression "saint-office" as synonymous with "office divin" is not
correct. "Saint-office" signifies a Roman congregation, the
functions of which are well known, and the words should not be
used to replace the name "Divine Office", which is much more
suitable and has been used from ancient times. In the articles
BREVIARY; HOURS, CANONICAL; MATINS; PRIME; TERCE; SEXT; NONE;
VESPERS, the reader will find treated the special questions
concerning the meaning and history of each of the hours, the
obligation of reciting these prayers, the history of the formation
of the Breviary, etc. We deal here only with the general questions
that have not been dwelt on in those articles.

II. PRIMITIVE FORM OF THE OFFICE

The custom of reciting prayers at certain hours of the day or
night goes back to the Jews, from whom Christians have borrowed
it. In the Psalms we find expressions like: "I will meditate on
thee in the morning"; "I rose at midnight to give praise to thee";
"Evening and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and he
shall hear my voice"; "Seven times a day I have given praise to
thee"; etc. (Cf. "Jewish Encyclopedia", X, 164-171, s. v.
"Prayer"). The Apostles observed the Jewish custom of praying at
midnight, terce, sext, none (Acts, x, 3, 9; xvi, 25; etc.). The
Christian prayer of that time consisted of almost the same
elements as the Jewish: recital or chanting of psalms, reading of
the Old Testament, to which was soon added reading of the Gospels,
Acts, and Epistles, and at times canticles composed or improvised
by the assistants. "Gloria in excelsis" and the "Te decet laus"
are apparently vestiges of these primitive inspirations. At
present the elements composing the Divine Office seem more
numerous, but they are derived, by gradual changes, from the
primitive elements. As appears from the texts of Acts cited above,
the first Christians preserved the custom of going to the Temple
at the hour of prayer. But they had also their reunions or synaxes
in private houses for the celebration of the Eucharist and for
sermons and exhortations. But the Eucharistic synaxis soon
entailed other prayers; the custom of going to the Temple
disappeared; and the abuses of the Judaizing party forced the
Christians to separate more distinctly from the Jews and their
practices and worship. Thenceforth the Christian liturgy rarely
borrowed from Judaism.

III. DEVELOPMENT

The development of the Divine Office was probably in the following
manner: The celebration of the Eucharist was preceded by the
recital of the psalms and the reading of the Old and New
Testaments. This was called the Mass of the Catechumens, which has
been preserved almost in its original form. Probably this part of
the Mass was the first form of the Divine Office, and, in the
beginning, the vigils and the Eucharistic Synaxis were one. When
the Eucharistic service was not celebrated, the prayer was limited
to the recital or chanting of the psalms and the reading of the
Scriptures. The vigils thus separated from the Mass became an
independent office. During the first period the only office
celebrated in public was the Eucharistic Synaxis with vigils
preceding it, but forming with it one whole. In this hypothesis
the Mass of the Catechumens would be the original kernel of the
whole Divine Office. The Eucharistic Synaxis beginning at eventide
did not terminate till dawn. The vigils, independently of the
Eucharistic service, were divided naturally into three parts; the
beginning of the vigils, or the evening Office; the vigils
properly so called; and the end of the vigils or the matutinal
Office. For when the vigils were as yet the only Office and were
celebrated but rarely, they were continued during the greater part
of the night. Thus the Office which we have called the Office of
evening or Vespers, that of midnight, and that of the morning,
called Matins first and then Lauds, were originally but one
Office. If this hypothesis be rejected, it must be admitted that
at first there was only one public office, Vigils. The service of
eventide, Vespers, and that of the morning, Matins or Lauds, were
gradually separated from it. During the day, Terce, Sext, and
None, customary hours of private prayers both with the Jews and
the early Christians, became later ecclesiastical Hours, just like
Vespers or Lauds. Complin appears as a repetition of Vespers,
first in the fourth century (see COMPLIN). Prime is the only hour
the precise origin and date of which are known--at the end of the
fourth century (see PRIME).

At all events, during the course of the fifth century, the Office
was composed, as to-day, of a nocturnal Office, viz. Vigils--
afterwards Matins--and the seven Offices of the day, Lauds, Prime,
Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Complin. In the "Apostolic
Constitutions" we read: "Precationes facite mane, hora tertia,
sexta, nona, et vespere atque galli cantu" (VIII, iv). Such were
the hours as they then existed. There are omitted only Prime and
Complin, which originated not earlier than the end of the fourth
century, and the use of which spread only gradually. The elements
of which these hours are composed were at first few in number,
identical with those of the Mass of the Catechumens, psalms
recited or chanted uninterruptedly (tract) or by two choirs
(antiphons) or by a cantor alternating with the choir (responses
and versicles); lessons ( readings from the Old and New
Testaments, the origin of the capitula), and prayers (see
BREVIARY).

This development of the Divine Office, as far as concerns the
Roman liturgy, was completed at the close of the sixth century.
Later changes are not in essential points but rather concern
additions, as the antiphons to Our Lady at the end of certain
offices, matters of the calendar, and optional offices, like those
of Saturday (see LITTLE OFFICE OF OUR LADY), or of the dead (see
OFFICE OF THE DEAD), and the celebration of new feasts etc. The
influence of St. Gregory the Great on the formation and fixation
of the Roman Antiphonary, an influence that has been questioned,
now appears certain (see "Dict. d'archeol. et de liturgie", s. v.
"Antiphonaire").

While allowing a certain liberty as to the exterior form of the
office (e.g. the liberty enjoyed by the monks of Egypt and later
by St. Benedict in the constitution of the Benedictine Office),
the Church insisted from ancient times on its right to supervise
the orthodoxy of the liturgical formul�. The Council of Milevis
(416) forbade any liturgical formula not approved by a council or
by a competent authority (cf. Labbe, II, 1540). The Councils of
Vannes (461), Agde (506), Epaon (517), Braga (563), Toledo
(especially the fourth council) promulgated similar decrees for
Gaul and Spain. In the fifth and sixth centuries several facts
(see CANON OF THE MASS) made known to us the rights claimed by the
popes in liturgical matters. The same fact is established by the
correspondence of St. Gregory I. Under his successors the Roman
liturgy tends gradually to replace the others, and this is
additional proof of the right of the Church to control the liturgy
(a thesis well established by Dom Gueranger in his "Institutions
Liturgiques", Paris, 1883, and in his letter to the Archbishop of
Reims on liturgical law, op. cit., III, 453 sq.). From the
eleventh century, under St. Gregory VII and his successors, this
influence gradually increases (Baumer-Biron, "Hist. du Breviaire",
especially II, 8, 22 sqq.). From the Council of Trent the
reformation of the liturgical books enters a new phase. Rome
becomes, under Popes Pius IV, St. Pius V, Gregory XIII, Sixtus V,
Gregory XIV, Urban VII and his successors, Benedict XIV, the scene
of a laborious undertaking--the reformation and correction of the
Divine Office, resulting in the modern custom, with all the
rubrics and rules for the recitation of the Divine Office and its
obligation, and with the reformation of the liturgical books,
corrected in accordance with the decisions of the Council of Trent
and solemnly approved by the popes (Baumer-Biron, "Hist. du
Breviaire").

NOTES

BONA, De divina Psalmodia, ii, par. 1; THOMASSIN, De vet. eccl.
disc., Part I, II, lxxi-lxxviii; GRANCOLAS, Traite de la messe et
de l'office divin (Paris, 1713); MACHIETTA, Commentarius
historico-theologicus de divino officio (Venice, 1739); PIANACCI,
Del offizio divino, trattato historico-critico-morale (Rome,
1770); De divini officii nominibus et definitione, antiquitate et
excellentia in ZACCARIA, Disciplina populi Dei in N. T., 1782, I,
116 sq.; MORONI, Dizionario di erudizione storico ecclesiastica,
LXXXII, 279 sqq.; BAUMER-BIRON, Histoire du Breviaire (Paris,
1905), passim; CABROL, Dict. d'archeol. et de liturgie, s. vv.
Antiphonaire, Breviaire; GAVANTI, Compendio delle cerimonie
ecclesiastiche, the part devoted to the rubrics of the Breviary,
sections on the obligation, omission, and in general all the
questions concerning the recitation of the Office; ROSKOV�NY, De
coelibatu et Breviario (Budapest, 1861); BATIFFOL, Origine de
l'obligation personnelle des clercs a le recitation de l'office
canonique in Le canoniste contemporain, XVII (1894), 9-15; IDEM,
Histoire du Breviaire romain (Paris, 1893).

FERNAND CABROL
Transcribed by Elizabeth T. Knuth

Dedicated to the monks of St. John's Abbey, Collegeville,
Minnesota

From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

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